...because everyone is blogging for good.Baking and Book's fundraising for Hazon Foundation: Ariela's book raffle is drawing to a close in the next couple of days, and she's got some good books, like Simon Hopkinson's Roasted Chicken and Other Stories, up for grabs, not to mention Nigella's and Jamie's and more. Throw in a fiver and get your chance today!

Then I came across something that got me to change my mind. It's been
a while since I found a tea gadget worth buying, and this one certainly
is. It's called UtiliTea, and I found it on Adagio Teas website (via
Coolhunting). It's an electric kettle. (You have an electric kettle
by now, yes? It boils water much more efficiently than the antiquated
stove top kettles. One simply can't be a tea snob without one.) The UtiliTea is not
just any old electric kettle, mind you, it has settings that
allow you to boil water up to certain temperatures, so that the water
destined for green tea can stop at just below boiling and water for
black tea will be heated to full, rocking boil, for example.

This is such a brilliant idea I wondered why no one had thought of it
before. No more watching the regular kettle so you can stop the heat
at just the moment bubbles begin to form, and no more waiting for the
water you accidentally let go fully boiled cools down enough so that it
wouldn't burn a delicate green tea, like the Kawanecha I drank this
morning. Brilliant idea.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Friday, August 10, 2007

Ok, breakfast of this champion at least. What am I doing calling myself a champion, you asked? Hey, didn't you hear, self-affirmation is good for you. Ha.

I should tell you first I'm not much of a savory-beans eater - when I grew up in Asia most beans were in desserts. I haven't really been able to get over that childhood silliness. Not helping the matter is how most beans are hardly worth eating anyway - flavorless, old supermarket beans with a texture of decomposing bread, or Mexican refried beans as thick as cement paste.

Anyway, my friend Steve of Rancho Gordo gave me a bag of giant lima beans the other day. Before you jump on my case for taking and plugging freebies I should tell you I work for them beans! When Steve is alone at the Saturday farmers market - rare now that he's got his gal pal Joan helping out - I would keep his stall for him while he takes a pee break! Plenty of people have seen me selling beans. There may have even been photographic evidence.

These lima beans are giant, and, despite what I've heard about lima beans, Steve assured me they are muy tasty. So I took them, and yesterday morning turned them into this crazy good breakfast.

That is to say, no hamburger meat of uncertain origin, no chemically treated ham, no fish sticks nor "cordon bleu", no dehydrated spuds, not even ketchup or soda. ... Here the kids have the rights to the pleasure of the table and the discovery of flavors. Here, they eat real food, real cuisine, just like daddy and mommy. Taste is cultural, it is learnt, and sadly it's not something our children can acquire in the school cafeteria. Perhaps there is still time to do something about it!!!

Found on the 'menu' at an underground restaurant with a super cute name, Le Lapin Tant Pis, in Forcalquier, Provence.

Nothing to add, really, well, except, AMEN brother.

(Image borrowed from Tagaland. Warning: that site contains low music.)

Monday, August 06, 2007

I was just innocently channel-surfing, minding my own business the other day when something
green got me all fuming and seeing red. It was on Ming Tsai's show,
something about Thai green curry paste. The problem is, that paste is just as Thai as Yul Brynner huffing and
hopping his way around the room in a simian imitation of King Mongkut.
I don't have anything against Ming Tsai, mind you. I found him
entertaining enough when I saw him in Aspen last year. I even think the format of his show made a lot of sense: teach one master
recipe and how to adapt it into multiple recipes involving different
ingredients. That's how most of us cook anyway. But I must take
exception of this one recipe.

The master recipe I am talking about is a 'Thai' green curry paste. It
was such an abomination that it ruined the otherwise innocent recipes that follow. It even entangled the cutesy Aaron Sanchez of Centrico into making a
hybrid Latino-Thai version of a Mole. I am serious.

The recipe I found so distasteful has - amongst its many ingredients -
a substantial amount of mint, basil, and cilantro leafs. A whole cup
each, which is - let me put it gracefully - YUCK.

I don't know where this weird trend really began, but the first time I
encountered a green curry paste recipe like this was a recipe
by Jean-Georges. He spent quite a bit of time in Thailand, right?
You'd think he knew how to make a proper curry paste. Well, I'm sure
he knows how to make very many proper things, but Thai green curry
paste is not one of them. His recipe called for cupfuls of cilantro
leafs. Cups of them! Do you know what kind of curry that paste would
make? A Dr.Brenner's special green soap curry, that's what! And, as
though JGV's recipe isn't bad enough, Ming Tsai took the concept and
ran with it, adding not just the offensive cilantro leafs but also the
incongruous basil and mint. And he ishardlyalone.